Eyewear inspired by the Stories and Genius of Ernest Hemingway

Continuing our Focusers tradition of honoring innovators and leaders in science, culture and statesmanship, we offer our Ernest Hemingway Signature Eyewear. These frames are named after two of "Papa Bear" Hemingway's most beloved novels.

A Farewell to Arms is a romance story set during World War 1, and depicts the tragic conflict between love and war. In spare but powerful prose, Hemingway infuses his own autobiographical experiences into his tale of an American lieutenant and an English nurse's love affair amid the horrors of wartime Italy. In Hemingway's moving, simple phrasing, we feel the intensity and desperation of their feelings.

Farewells eye frames are thus named to honor the resolute sense of duty and passion of Hemingway's novel. The softened rectangularity of the acetate rims transition from your choice of glossy black or dark hued tortoise to a clear crystal, as if reflective of the balance of the story. Farewells also have Ernest Hemingway's Signature reproduced on the temples, in tribute to his towering talent.

The main theme of For Whom the Bell Tolls can be found in its title, which is taken from a 1624 work by John Donne:
"Any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee."

Hemingway's 1940 novel illustrates the universality of every human, and how we are all connected and are diminished by the suffering or death of others. Set during the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, the main characters commit themselves to their cause and each other, and are willing to give their very lives for a better world.

Tolls eye frames, at first glance, are spare, rugged P3 shaped metal frames that reflect Hemingway's life and writing style. But on closer look, the temples and nose bridge are subtly ornamented in the Spanish style. Like Hemingway's story, Tolls suggest a timeless sense of duty, honor and commitment to a cause greater than oneself.